Red Flag Warning issued for most of North Bay

The National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Warning for much of the North Bay and issued another one for Napa over possible lightning on Monday.

KGO

by Tiffany Wilson

Monday, August 11, 2014

Most of the North Bay was placed under a Red Flag Warning Monday because of the dry conditions.

The National Weather Service has issued another one for Napa starting Monday at 9 p.m. because of possible lightning.

There is an increased in fire danger because of all the dry brush in the area and one storm can produce a lot of lightning. Just last month, the US Forest Service recorded 955 strikes in Siskiyou County.

"Dry lightning, kinda worries me," Rachel Rice said.

One bolt could turn straw, brush and bramble into choking smoke, fire and ash. And dry lightning could strike in Napa Monday night.

"We have a wood house, so if anything catches it's gone. So that is kind of a concern," Rice said.

Even though fire fighters are on high alert, there's nothing you can do to prevent Mother Nature.

"Dry events are much more worrisome than the ones that get a lot of rain with them," Cal Fire Battalion Chief Barry Biermann said.

The National Weather Service issued a Red Flag warning for much of the North Bay starting at 9 p.m. Monday. The warning includes a risk of lightning without much rain and wind gusts up to 30 miles per hour. The dangerous system started in the Sierra mountains.

"Currently we are getting active lightning as we speak in the Sierras and we do have some new fires that are starting.

With crews there already overwhelmed, the Sonoma-Lake-Napa Cal Fire Unit deployed a fifth strike team to help.

"We've been on a long time, it's been over a week now our personnel have been called back to duty, days off have been cancelled, we've been working with our cooperators to help us cover some stations and equipment, and so yeah it's tiring," Biermann said.

"I'm not sure they can get paid enough for what they have to do," one woman said.

Biermann expected this fire season would be bad and hopes it doesn't get worse.

"We're hoping it doesn't happen. We're hoping the weather service is wrong. We will be prepared for it any event, but if 5 a.m. or tomorrow comes and we don't have the event it will be a good thing for everyone around here," Biermann said.

Unfortunately even if they dodge a strike overnight, real relief won't come until the rain.